Photobioreactor systems and methods

ABSTRACT

A bioreactor including a containment structure containing a liquid culture medium for cultivating seaweed. The containment structure includes a sidewall extending vertically between a top and bottom section where the bottom section has an effluent arranged to allow extraction of cultivated seaweed. A spiral liner is positioned adjacent to an inside surface of the sidewall. The recirculator includes a pump arranged to continuously receive a portion of the liquid culture medium via an inlet from the bottom section and output the liquid culture medium via the outlet at the top section. Sensors monitor environmental conditions within the bioreactor. Light emitters are arranged along a surface of the spiral liner. Flow generators, positioned within the containment structure in a spiral configuration between the top section and bottom section, are configured to direct a flow of the liquid culture medium from the top section toward the bottom section of the containment structure.

REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application also claims priority to and the benefit of U.S.Provisional Patent Application No. 63/172,407, filed on Apr. 8, 2021,entitled “PHOTOBIOREACTOR SYSTEMS AND METHODS,” the entire contents ofwhich are incorporated herein by reference.

TECHNICAL FIELD

This application relates generally to photobioreactors and, moreparticularly, to photobioreactors for algae and seaweed cultivation,useful for carbon sequestration, biomaterials and biofuels production.

BACKGROUND

Bioreactors are systems that promote a biologically active environment.A typical bioreactor has a vessel where a chemical process is carriedout involving organisms or biochemically active substances derived fromorganisms. Some common bioreactors have a cylindrical shape. Bioreactorstypically operate in one of several modes including a batch, fed batch,or continuous mode, such as continuous stirred-tank bioreactors.Organisms growing in bioreactors are usually submerged in a liquid suchas water or sea water. Environmental conditions inside a bioreactor suchas temperature, nutrient concentrations, pH, dissolved gases, and lightintensity can be controlled. A photobioreactor (PBR) is a type ofbioreactor that uses natural or artificial light to enhance the chemicalprocess within the bioreactor. Photobioreactors are often used to growphototrophic organisms including cyanobacteria, algae, or moss plants.Seaweeds are a group of algae. All seaweed species are autotrophic whilesome algae species rely on other external food materials. Light providesan energy source via photosynthesis to organisms that can eliminate theneed for sugars or lipids as an energy source.

Algae or seaweed biomass produced by a bioreactor can be dried and usedas a food for humans. Derived fine biochemical products can be extractedfrom algae including, for example, cosmetic pigments, fatty acids,antioxidants, proteins with prophylactic action, growth factors,antibiotics, vitamins and polysaccharides. An algae biomass is alsouseful, in a low dose, to replace or decrease the level of antibiotic inanimal food or can be useful as a source of proteins. An algae biomassin wet form can be fermented or liquefied by a thermal process toproduce a biofuel. Early photobioreactors used shallow lagoons agitatedwith one or several paddle wheels. These photobioreactors had poorproductivity and were susceptible to seasonal and daily climatevariations. They were also confined to tropical and subtropical areasand prone to contamination. Closed cultivating systems addresslimitations associated with shallow lagoon or open systems by providingmore consistent control of environmental conditions such as light,temperature, and culture mixture within the bioreactor. Some bioreactorsinject inorganic carbon in the form of gaseous CO₂ or bicarbonate as asource of carbon to enhance the growth of microalgae.

Unfortunately, there remains a need for improved algae and seaweedcultivation to increase the quality, efficiency, diversity, and outputyield of algae and seaweed producing bioreactors.

SUMMARY

The application, in various implementations, addresses deficienciesassociated with cultivating algae and/or seaweed usingphotobioreactors.This application describes exemplary photobioreactorsystems, methods, and devices that more effectively and efficientlycultivate algae and/or seaweed by configuring a bioreactor to optimallystimulate biomass production and/or yield. The optimization may beenhanced by unique arrangement of flow generators and/or light emitterswithin the bioreactor. The optimization may be enhanced by monitoringenvironmental conditions using sensors to provide sensor data to abioreactor controller that uses artificial intelligence (AI) and/ormachine learning (ML) to process the sensor data while dynamicallyadjusting operations of various bioreactor components to adjust one ormore environment conditions within the bioreactor and, thereby, optimizebiomass quality and/or yield or optimize seaweed characteristics for atargeted use. There is an increased need for large scale global seaweedproduction especially focused on sustainable protein and carbon neutralenergy to meet the needs of a climate challenged world. The efficienciesand associated technologies of this application are needed to addressthe needs of an increased population. A new type of photobioreactor isproposed to address these unique marketplace challenges.

In one aspect, a photobioreactor includes a containment structurearranged to contain a liquid culture medium for cultivating seaweed. Theliquid culture medium may include seawater, nutrients, and/or seaweed.The containment structure includes at least one sidewall extendingvertically between a top and bottom section. The structure may have acylindrical, silo, rectangular, square, and/or other geometric shape.The bottom section may include an effluent portal arranged to allowextraction of cultivated seaweed. The bioreactor includes a spiral linerpositioned adjacent to an inside surface of the at least one sidewalland is in contact with the liquid culture medium. The bioreactor alsoincludes a recirculator having an inlet proximate to the bottom sectionand outlet proximate to the top section of the containment structure.

The recirculator includes a pump arranged to continuously receive aportion of the liquid culture medium via the inlet from the bottomsection and output the portion of the liquid culture medium via theoutlet proximate to the top section. The bioreactor further includes anarray of sensors arranged to monitor at least one environmentalcondition within the bioreactor. The bioreactor includes an array oflight emitters arranged adjacent to a surface of the spiral liner and/oralong a spiral conduit. The bioreactor also includes a plurality of flowgenerators, positioned within the containment structure in a spiralconfiguration between the top section and bottom section, arranged todirect a flow of the liquid culture medium from the top section towardthe bottom section of the containment structure along a downward spiralpath. In some implementations, one or more light emitters or a portionof the array of light emitters is arranged along the downward spiralpath to enhance the transmission of light energy to a seaweed biomasstraveling along the downward path.

An environmental condition may include a biomass flow rate, temperature,nutrient concentrations, pH levels, dissolved gas concentrations, orlight intensity within the liquid culture medium. In one implementation,the array of light emitters includes light emitting diodes (LEDs). Insome configurations, the recirculator includes a medium return systemforming a channel within the containment structure including an inletproximate to the bottom section and outlet proximate to the top section.The medium return system includes a pump arranged to continuouslyreceive a portion of the liquid culture medium via the inlet from thebottom section of the containment structure and output the portion ofthe liquid culture medium via the outlet to the top section of thecontainment structure. In some implementations, a flow generatorincludes an eductor.

The photobioreactor may include a controller arranged to receive sensordata from an array of sensors based on one or more environmentalcondition monitored within the photobioreactor. The controller mayadjust flow rate, temperature, nutrient concentrations, pH levels,dissolved gas concentrations, and/or light intensity within the liquidculture medium. The controller may adjust environmental conditions byopening, closing, turning on, turning off, adjusting flow rate, and/oradjusting mixing rate of one or more components of the photobioreatorand/or adjusting light intensity of light emitters of thephotobioreactor.

The controller may implement artificial intelligence, machine learning,and/or deep learning to optimize predictive analytics for qualitycontrol monitoring and/or seaweed production optimization. A portion ofthe sensors may use a data network, e.g. Internet-of-Things (IoT), inproximity to the photobioreactor and other photobioreactors to generatereal-time sensor data via a cloud computing network. The real-timesensor data may be receivable by the controller, one or more offsitecontrol systems, and/or one or more remote monitoring systems. Thephotobioreactor and the other photobioreactors may be communicativelycoupled to form a biorefinery network. The controller, one or moreoffsite control systems, and/or one or more monitoring systems may bearranged to perform robotic process automation (RPA) to facilitateautomation of sensor data collection, testing, maintenance, and/orharvesting of seaweed at one or more photobioreactors.

Any two or more of the features described in this specification,including in this summary section, may be combined to formimplementations not specifically described in this specification.Furthermore, while this specification may refer to examples of systems,methods, and devices related algae or seaweed producing bioreactors,such techniques also apply equally to bioreactors arranged to cultivateother organisms. For example, the systems and methods described hereinrelated to photobioreactors can be used for any kind of aquaculture suchas, without limitation, crustaceans, fish, mollusks, echinoderms, andthe like.

The details of one or more implementations are set forth in theaccompanying drawings and the following description. Other features andadvantages will be apparent from the description and drawings, and fromthe claims.

DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a diagram of an exemplary photobioreactor;

FIG. 2 shows a diagram of a computer system;

FIG. 3 shows a side view of a photobioreactor;

FIG. 4 shows a top-down view of the photobioreactor of FIG. 3; and

FIG. 5 illustrates a seaweed cultivation process related to theoperation of the bioreactor of FIGS. 3 and 4.

Like reference numerals in different figures indicate like elements.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The application, in various implementations, addresses deficienciesassociated with cultivating algae and/or seaweed using bioreactors. Thisapplication describes exemplary systems, methods, and devices thateffectively and efficiently implement algae and/or seaweed cultivationby configuring a photobioreactor to optimally stimulate biomassproduction and/or yield. The optimization may be enhanced by aparticular arrangement of flow generators and/or light emitters withinthe bioreactor. The optimization may be further enhanced by monitoringenvironmental conditions using sensors to provide sensor data to abioreactor controller that uses AI and/or ML to process the sensor dataand dynamically adjust operations of various bioreactor components toadjust one or more environment conditions within the bioreactor, whichoptimizes biomass quality and/or yield, or optimizes seaweedcharacteristics for a targeted use.

FIG. 1 is a diagram of an exemplary of a photobioreactor 100 including acontainment structure, vessel, and/or housing 102. Bioreactor 100 alsoincludes a recirculator 124 connected to a seawater intake 110 having anozone filter 104, CO2 injector 106, Ultraviolet (UV) filter 108, andbiofilter 112. Recirculator 124 and seawater intake 110 provide an inputof seawater into containment structure 102 proximate to a top section ofstructure 102. Seawater intake 110 and/or a dedicated nutrient injector114 may provide nutrients to a liquid medium, e.g., seawater with orwithout nutrients, in structure 102. Seawater intake 110 and/orrecirculator 124 may use one or more mixing educators to mix liquidsfrom the recirculated liquid from the bioreactor, seawater, nutrients,and other inputs into the containment structure 102. Bioreactor 100 mayinclude one or more environment sensors and/or an array of sensors 116arranged to sense one or more environmental conditions within bioreactor100. Bioreactor 100 includes a harvestor 122 arranged to strain seaweedbiomass from outgoing water at effluent portal 120 and either reduce theseawater biomass in size that is recirculated back into the containmentstructure 102 or harvest out a portion of the seawater biomass.

In some implementations, bioreactor 100 includes a spiral linerpositioned adjacent to an inside surface of the at least one sidewalland which is in contact with the liquid culture medium, such asdisclosed with respect to FIGS. 3 and 4. In some implementations,bioreactor 100 includes a plurality of flow generators as described withrespect to FIGS. 3 and 4, positioned within containment structure 102 ina spiral configuration between the top section and bottom section,arranged to direct a flow of the liquid culture medium from the topsection toward the bottom section of containment structure 102.

In certain implementations, bioreactor 100 includes a controller 118arranged to enable automated control of components of bioreactor 100.Controller 118 may include a processor running artificial intelligence(AI) and/or machine learning (ML), neural networks, Bayesian networks,and/or fuzzy logic to process sensor data received from sensor array 116and control various environmental parameters of bioreactor 100including, without limitation, biomass flow rates, temperature, nutrientconcentrations, pH levels, dissolved gases concentrations, and/or lightintensity. Controller 118 may implement Artificial Neural Networks (ANN)and/or Deep-learning architectures such as deep neural networks, deepbelief networks, recurrent neural networks and convolutional neuralnetworks to dynamically adjust environmental conditions withinbioreactor 100 or 300. Controller 118 may implement supervised learning,reinforcement learning, and/or unsupervised learning. Reinforcedlearning may include game theory, control theory, operations research,information theory, and/or simulation-based optimization to dynamicallyadjust environmental conditions within bioreactor 100 or 300. Thebioreactor cultivation environment may be represented as a Markovdecision process (MDP). Controller 118 may create multiple decisiontrees that solve multiple cultivation optimization problems. Controller118 may use Bayesian networks to optimize an algae and/or seaweedcultivation process.

Controller 118 may use one or more neural networks, such multilayerperceptrons (MLPs), convolutional neural networks (CNNs), or deepBoltzman machines (DBM) that are trained to compute a function that mapsan input vector to an output vector. The N-element output vector mayconvey estimates of the probabilities of N cultivation settings. In someimplementations, controller 118 uses a recurrent neural network (RNN)where its neurons send feedback signals to each other to enable dynamictemporal behavior. Controller 118 may use an enhanced RNN referred to aslong short-term memory (LSTM) and/or hierarchal temporal memory (HTM).Controller 118 may use a combination of the aforementioned AI algorithmsto form a hybrid control system. A decision tree is a generic term thatdescribes a decision process that may use one or more attributes at eachnode and/or use an information theoretic measure to formulate queries ateach node to reach a decision on the optimal cultivation configurationfor growing algae and/or seaweed in bioreactor 100.

In operation in one implementation, seaweed and seawater are pumped upthrough recirculator 124 to top section of containment structure 102,e.g., the top of the liquid culture medium and/or water column. Seaweedreaches surface and begins to sink and spiral back down through thecontainment structure 102. Seaweed travels along a layer of textileliner while spinning down inside the containment structure and/or silo102. Seaweed is simultaneously pushed through a spiral conduit and“rotated” by one or more flow generators, e.g, eductors, plumbed intothe spiral. Seaweed is exposed to spectrally tuned LED light emittedfrom light emitters to support or enhance cultivation and/or growth.Heavier biomass and/or other solids are selected out via a vortex ofeffluent portal 120 for harvest and/or size reduction and/or removal,whereby smaller and/or lighter biomass is sucked into recirculator 124and pumped back to the top section of containment structure 102. Theabove cycle repeats continuously during operation.

The diameter or distance between two sidewalls of bioreactor 100 or 300may be greater than or equal to 0.5 m, 1 m, 2 m, 3 m, 5 m, 7 m, 10 m, 15m, 20 m, 30 m, 40 m, or 50 meters. The depth or distance from top tobottom of bioreactor 100 or 300 may be greater than or equal to 0.5 m, 1m, 2 m, 3 m, 5 m, 7 m, 10 m, 15 m, 20 m, 30 m, 40 m, or 50 meters. Thecontainment structure 102 and/or bioreactor 100 may be partially orfully mounted below a ground surface. The containment structure 102and/or bioreactor 100 may be partially or fully mounted above a groundsurface to facilitate more efficient harvesting of biomass. Two or morebioreactors 100 and/or an array of bioreactors 100 may be mountedadjacent to each other to facilitate more efficient biomass harvestingand/or production. The containment structure 102 and/or bioreactor 100may be partially or fully mounted within a body of water. Thecontainment structure 102 and/or bioreactor 100 may be partially orfully mounted within a body of water periodically, at certain times ofday, or during certain tidal events. Light emitters within containmentstructure 102 may be equally spaced apart horizontally, vertically,and/or circumferentially. Flow generators within containment structure102 may be equally spaced apart horizontally, vertically, and/orcircumferentially. Containment structure 102 may be formed with and/orcontain material such as, without limitation, metal (e.g., steel),plastic, concrete, and/or earth materials.

By facilitating a flow of biomass in a downward spiral formation and/orflow path within containment structure 102, bioreactor 100 enables moreaccurate and efficient detection and/or measurement of biomass flow,volume, and/or yield at a given time or period of time. Bioreactor 100may include at least one video sensor within containment structure 102.The video sensor may be configured to measure one or morecharacteristics of the biomass as it flow past the sensor's field ofview. The video sensor may provide sensor data to enable a determinationand/or detection by, for example, controller 118 of biomass density,distribution, flow, foreign material and/or invasive species. In someconfigurations, bioreactor 100 includes multiple video sensorspositioned along the spiral flow path of the biomass within containmentstructure 102.

In various implementations, bioreactor 100 operates as a closed and/oron-shore bioreactor. There a numerous advantages to operating anon-shore bioreactor including enhanced climate control, control ofchemical properties of the liquid culture medium such as nutrientconcentrations, and cultivation of types of seaweed tailored for highervalue markets. For instance, environmental conditions (e.g., proteinand/or sugar concentration) can be adjusted to tailor a seaweed productto a particular use such as for human food, biofuel, animal feed,packaging products, and so on.

FIG. 2 includes a block diagram of a computer system 200 for performingthe functions of a computer such as for the controller 118 of FIG. 1.The exemplary computer system 200 includes a central processing unit(CPU) 202, a memory 204, and an interconnect bus 206. The CPU 202 mayinclude a single microprocessor or a plurality of microprocessors forconfiguring computer system 200 as a multi-processor system. The memory204 illustratively includes a main memory and a read only memory. Thecomputer 200 also includes the mass storage device 208 having, forexample, various disk drives, tape drives, etc. The main memory 204 alsoincludes dynamic random access memory (DRAM) and high-speed cachememory. In operation, the main memory 204 stores at least portions ofinstructions and data for execution by the CPU 202.

The mass storage 208 may include one or more magnetic disk or tapedrives or optical disk drives or solid state memory, for storing dataand instructions for use by the CPU 202. At least one component of themass storage system 208, preferably in the form of a disk drive, solidstate, or tape drive, stores the database used for processing sensordata from sensor array 116 and running AI and/or ML engines and/orneural networks for controlling bioreactor 100 or 300. The AI and/or MLengines may implement ANNs and/or Deep-learning architectures such asdeep neural networks, deep belief networks, recurrent neural networksand convolutional neural networks to dynamically adjust environmentalconditions within bioreactor 100 or 300. To effect automated control ofbioreactor 100 or 300, computer 200 may send sensor control signals tovarious components 104, 106, 108, 110, 112, 114, 120, and 122 ofbioreactor 100 or 300 to either, open, close, turn on, turn off, adjustflow rate, adjust mixing rate, and/or light intensity of light emitters,to optimize algae and/or seaweed production within bioreactor 100 or300. The mass storage system 208 may also include one or more drives forvarious portable media, such as a floppy disk, flash drive, a compactdisc read only memory (CD-ROM, DVD, CD-RW, and variants), memory stick,or an integrated circuit non-volatile memory adapter (i.e. PC-MCIAadapter) to input an d output data and code to and from the computersystem 200. In some implementations, computer 200 and/or controller 118may control multiple bioreactors concurrently via a data network such asnetwork 212. Controller 118 may coordinate operations among the multiplebioreactors to optimize output production and/or yield among themultiple bioreactors. Network 212 may include a wireless, Adhoc, and/ormobile network, supporting multiple computing servers implementation acloud computing environment. Various environmental sensors and/ormultiple bioreactors may be communicatively connected via network 212as, for example, Internet-of-Things (IoT) capable systems and/ordevices. In some implementations, network 212 may enable computer 200and/or controller 118 to coordinate operations of multiplephotobioreactors by using predictive analytics to process, for example,global position system (GPS) data and other big data to coordinateoperations and control of multiple concurrently operating bioreactorsover a geographic area. In certain implementations, network 212 mayenable collections of, for example, GPS data from multiple bioreactorsand use an ML program to enhance security and/or performance for seaweedproduction on land or in the sea.

The computer system 200 may also include one or more input/outputinterfaces for communications, shown by way of example, as interface 210and/or transceiver for data communications via the network 212. The datainterface 210 may be a modem, an Ethernet card or any other suitabledata communications device. To provide the functions of a computer 102,the data interface 210 may provide a relatively high-speed link to anetwork 212, such as an intranet, or the Internet, either directly orthrough another external interface. The communication link to thenetwork 212 may be, for example, optical, wired, or wireless (e.g., viasatellite or cellular network). Alternatively, the computer system 200may include a mainframe or other type of host computer system capable ofWeb-based communications via the network 212. The computer system 200may include software for operating a network application such as a webserver and/or web client.

The computer system 200 may also include suitable input/output ports,that may interface with a portable data storage device, or use theinterconnect bus 206 for interconnection with a local display 216 andkeyboard 214 or the like serving as a local user interface forprogramming and/or data retrieval purposes. The display 216 and/ordisplay 120 may include a touch screen capability to enable users tointerface with the system 200 by touching portions of the surface of thedisplay 216. Remote operations personnel may interact with the system200 for controlling and/or programming the system from remote terminaldevices via the network 212.

The computer system 200 may run a variety of application programs andstore associated data in a database of mass storage system 208. One ormore such applications may include a bioreactor controller 118 thatcontrols various components of system 100 or 300 during the algae and/orseaweed cultivation and/or growth process.

The components contained in the computer system 200 may enable thecomputer system to be used as a server, workstation, personal computer,network terminal, mobile computing device, and the like. As discussedabove, the computer system 200 may include one or more applications thatenable cleaning and sanitization of a footwear sole or soles. The system200 may include software and/or hardware that implements a web serverapplication. The web server application may include software such asHTML, XML, WML, SGML, PHP (Hypertext Preprocessor), CGI, and likelanguages.

The foregoing features of the disclosure may be realized as a softwarecomponent operating in the system 200 where the system 200 includes UNIXworkstation, a Windows workstation, a LINUX workstation, or other typeof workstation. Other operating systems may be employed such as, withoutlimitation, Windows, MAC OS, and LINUX. In some aspects, the softwarecan optionally be implemented as a C language computer program, or acomputer program written in any high level language including, withoutlimitation, JavaScript, Java, CSS, Python, PHP, Ruby, C++, C, Shell, C#,Objective-C, Go, R, TeX, VimL, Perl, Scala, CoffeeScript, Emacs Lisp,Swift, Fortran, or Visual BASIC. Certain script-based programs may beemployed such as XML, WML, PHP, and so on. The system 200 may use adigital signal processor (DSP).

As stated previously, the mass storage 208 may include a database. Thedatabase may be any suitable database system, including the commerciallyavailable Microsoft Access database, and can be a local or distributeddatabase system. A database system may implement Sybase and/or an SQLServer. The database may be supported by any suitable persistent datamemory, such as a hard disk drive, RAID system, tape drive system,floppy diskette, or any other suitable system. The system 200 mayinclude a database that is integrated with the system 200, however, itis understood that, in other implementations, the database and massstorage 208 can be an external element.

In certain implementations, the system 200 may include an Internetbrowser program and/or to be configured to operate as a web server. Insome configurations, the client and/or web server may be configured torecognize and interpret various network protocols that may be used by aclient or server program. Commonly used protocols include HypertextTransfer Protocol (HTTP), File Transfer Protocol (FTP), Telnet, andSecure Sockets Layer (SSL), and Transport Layer Security (TLS), forexample. However, new protocols and revisions of existing protocols maybe frequently introduced. Thus, in order to support a new or revisedprotocol, a new revision of the server and/or client application may becontinuously developed and released.

The computer system 200 may include a web server running a Web 2.0application or the like. Web applications running on system 200 may useserver-side dynamic content generation mechanisms such, withoutlimitation, Java servlets, CGI, PHP, or ASP. In certain embodiments,mashed content may be generated by a web browser running, for example,client-side scripting including, without limitation, JavaScript and/orapplets on a wireless device.

In certain implementations, system 200 and/or controller 118 may includeapplications that employ asynchronous JavaScript + XML (Ajax) and liketechnologies that use asynchronous loading and content presentationtechniques. These techniques may include, without limitation, XHTML andCSS for style presentation, document object model (DOM) API exposed by aweb browser, asynchronous data exchange of XML data, and web browserside scripting, e.g., JavaScript. Certain web-based applications andservices may utilize web protocols including, without limitation, theservices-orientated access protocol (SOAP) and representational statetransfer (REST). REST may utilize HTTP with XML.

The system 200 may also provide enhanced security and data encryption.Enhanced security may include access control, biometric authentication,cryptographic authentication, message integrity checking, encryption,digital rights management services, and/or other like security services.The security may include protocols such as IPSEC and IKE. The encryptionmay include, without limitation, DES, 3DES, AES, RSA, and any likepublic key or private key based schemes.

FIG. 3 shows a side view of photobioreactor 300 including a recirculatorand/or return system 304 within its containment structure 302.Containment structure 302 forms a cavity in which a liquid culturemedium 310, e.g., a seawater growing medium, is contained. Recirculatorand/or medium return system 304 forms a channel within containmentstructure 302 including an inlet proximate to bottom section 320 andoutlet proximate to the top section 318. Recirculator 304 includes apump arranged to continuously receive a portion of liquid culture medium310 via the inlet in bottom section 320 and output the portion of liquidculture medium 310 via the outlet in top section 318. Recirculator 304may be position centrally to contribute to a downward spiral flow path306 of biomass and/or medium 310 within containment structure 302.

Bioreactor 300 also includes a spiral liner 312 adjacent to an innersurface of sidewall 322 of containment structure 302. The spiral liner312 enables, at least partially, a downward spiral flow path for seaweed306 from a top section 318 toward a bottom section 320 of containmentstructure 302. Gravity and/or one or more flow generators may alsoassist in providing a downward spiral flow of biomass and/or medium 310within containment structure 302. Bioreactor 300 may also include avortex grading and draining funnel 314 arranged to enable harvesting ofseaweed biomass via effluent portal 316. Containment structure 302 mayhave a sealed top section 318 arranged to enable a gas layer 308 abovethe liquid culture medium 310. Although not shown in FIG. 3, bioreactor300 may include one or more components as described with respect tobioreactor 100 of FIG. 1. For example, bioreactor 300 may include anarray of sensors, one or more lights emitters, and/or a controller suchas controller 118 of FIG. 1. Bioreactor 300 may be configured to operateas an on-shore and/or closed system or operate as an off-shore and/oropen system within a body of water such as the ocean. When operating asan on-shore or closed system, bioreactor 300 may include a recirculatorsuch as recirculator 124 of FIG. 1 in addition to or alternatively torecirculator 304.

FIG. 4 shows a top-down view 400 of photobioreactor 300 of FIG. 3. FIG.4 includes silo containment structure 402, spiral liner fabric 406,multiple eductors 408, multiple marine light emitters (e.g., LEDs) 410,return column 412 of recirculator 304, and an educator, electrical,and/or drainage conduit 414. FIG. 4 shows a downward spiral flow 404between return column 412 and spiral liner fabric 406. In certainimplementations, flow generators (e.g., eductors 408) and/or lightemitters 410 are spaced horizontally, vertically, and/or circumferentialequally or substantially equally apart. By arranging multiple lightemitters along a vertical depth and/or horizontally at various depths,the vertical length of bioreactors 100 or 300 can be extendedsubstantially with respect to conventional bioreactors that rely onnatural sun light. Conventional bioreactors are typically limited toabout a 2.5 m depth due to limited penetration of natural light througha cultivating medium via the top of a conventional bioreactor.

By positioning multiple light emitters at various depths and/or alongthe downward spiral flow path 404 or 306 of medium 310, an exposure ofmedium 310 to energy provided by light is substantially enhanced to,thereby, increase biomass yield and/or a consistency of the seaweedbiomass product. This is another technical advantage of implementing adownward spiral flow path 404 or 306 within bioreactor 300 and/or 100.As discussed with respect to FIG. 1, eductors 408 and/or flow generatorsmay be oriented in a downward direction toward bottom section 320 butalso oriented in horizontal direction to encourage the spiral downwardflow 404 and 306. In some implementations, eductors 408 and/or flowgenerators are oriented and/or positioned to promote medium flow 404and/or 306 in a parallel or substantially parallel direction as spiralliner 312. Eductors 408 may have a vertical orientation less than orequal to 2, 5, 10, 15, 20, 30, or 45 degrees from horizontal in adownward direction toward bottom section 320 and/or effluent portal 316or 120.

FIG. 5 illustrates a seaweed cultivation process 500 related to theoperation of photobioreactor 300 of FIGS. 3 and 4. Seaweed and seawaterare pumped up through return column 412 and/or recirculator 304 to topsection 318 of containment structure 302 and/or 402, e.g., the top ofliquid culture medium 310 and/or return column 412 (Step 502 and Item 1of FIGS. 3 and 4). Seaweed reaches the surface of medium 310 and beginsto sink and spiral back down via path 306 and/or 404 through containmentstructure 302 and/or 402 (Step 504 and Item 2 of FIGS. 3 and 4). Seaweedtravels along a layer of textile liner, e.g., spiral liner 312 and/orspiral liner fabric 406 while spinning down inside containment structureand/or silo 302 and/or 402 (Step 506 and Item 3 of FIGS. 3 and 4).Seaweed is simultaneously pushed through spiral conduit 414 and“rotated” by one or more flow generators, e.g, eductors 408, plumbedinto spiral conduit 414 (Step 508 and Item 4 of FIGS. 3 and 4). Seaweedis exposed to spectrally tuned LED light emitted from light emitters 410to support or enhance cultivation and/or growth (Step 510 and Item 5 ofFIGS. 3 and 4). Heavier biomass and/or other solids are selected out viavortex 314 adjacent to effluent portal 316 for harvest and/or sizereduction and/or removal, whereby smaller and/or lighter biomass issucked into recirculator 304 and/or return column 412 and pumped back tothe top section 318 of containment structure 302 and/or 402. In someimplementations, the above cycle of Steps 502 through 512 repeatscontinuously during operation of bioreactor 300.

Elements or steps of different implementations described may be combinedto form other implementations not specifically set forth previously.Elements or steps may be left out of the systems or processes describedpreviously without adversely affecting their operation or the operationof the system in general. Furthermore, various separate elements orsteps may be combined into one or more individual elements or steps toperform the functions described in this specification.

Other implementations not specifically described in this specificationare also within the scope of the following claims.

What is claimed is:
 1. A photobioreactor comprising: a containmentstructure arranged to contain a liquid culture medium for cultivatingseaweed, the containment structure including at least one sidewallextending vertically between a top and bottom section, the bottomsection including an effluent portal arranged to allow extraction ofcultivated seaweed; a spiral liner positioned adjacent to an insidesurface of the at least one sidewall and being in contact with theliquid culture medium; a recirculator including an inlet in the bottomsection and outlet in the top section, the recirculatory including apump arranged to continuously receive a portion of the liquid culturemedium via the inlet from the bottom section and output the portion ofthe liquid culture medium via the outlet; an array of sensors arrangedto monitor at least one environmental condition within thephotobioreactor; an array of light emitters arranged along a surface ofthe spiral liner; and a plurality of flow generators, positioned withinthe containment structure in a spiral configuration between the topsection and bottom section, arranged to direct a flow of the liquidculture medium from the top section toward the bottom section of thecontainment structure along a downward spiral path.
 2. Thephotobioreactor of claim 1, wherein a portion of the array of lightemitters are arranged along the downward spiral path.
 3. Thephotobioreactor of claim 1, wherein the at least one environmentalcondition includes at least one of biomass flow rate, temperature,nutrient concentrations, pH, dissolved gases, and light intensity. 4.The photobioreactor of claim 1, wherein the array of light emittersincludes light emitting diodes.
 5. The photobioreactor of claim 1,wherein the recirculator includes a medium return system forming achannel within the containment structure between the inlet in the bottomsection and outlet in the top section, the medium return systemincluding the pump arranged to continuously receive a portion of theliquid culture medium via the inlet from the bottom section and outputthe portion of the liquid culture medium via the outlet.
 6. Thephotobioreactor of claim 1, wherein at least one flow generator of theplurality of flow generators includes an eductor.
 7. The photobioreactorof claim 1 comprising a controller arranged to receive sensor data fromthe array of sensors based on the at least one environmental conditionsmonitored within the photobioreactor.
 8. The photobioreactor of claim 7,wherein the controller adjusts at least one of flow rate, temperature,nutrient concentrations, pH levels, dissolved gas concentrations, andlight intensity within the liquid culture medium.
 9. The photobioreactorof claim 8, wherein the controller adjusts environmental conditions byat least one of opening, closing, turning on, turning off, adjustingflow rate, adjusting mixing rate of one or more components of thephotobioreator and/or adjusting light intensity of light emitters of thephotobioreactor.
 10. The photobioreactor of claim 9, wherein thecontroller implements at least one of artificial intelligence, machinelearning, and deep learning to optimize predictive analytics for atleast one of quality control monitoring and seaweed productionoptimization.
 11. The photobioreactor of claim 7, wherein a portion ofthe sensors use a data network in proximity to the photobioreactor andat least a second photobioreactor to generate real-time sensor data viaa cloud computing network.
 12. The photobioreactor of claim 11, whereinthe real-time sensor data is receivable by at least one of thecontroller, one or more offsite control systems, and one or moremonitoring systems.
 13. The photobioreactor of claim 12, wherein thephotobioreactor and the at least second photobioreactor arecommunicatively coupled to form a biorefinery network.
 14. Thephotobioreactor of claim 13, wherein the controller, one or more offsitecontrol systems, or the one or more monitoring systems are arranged toperform robotic process automation (RPA) to perform at least one ofautomating sensor data collection, testing, maintenance, and harvestingof seaweed.
 15. A method for cultivating a biomass using aphotobioreactor comprising: containing a liquid culture medium forcultivating seaweed using a containment structure, the containmentstructure including at least one sidewall extending vertically between atop and bottom section, the bottom section including an effluent portalarranged to allow extraction of cultivated seaweed; positioning a spiralliner adjacent to an inside surface of the at least one sidewall and incontact with the liquid culture medium; continuously receiving a portionof the liquid culture medium via a recirculator inlet from the bottomsection; outputting, from a pump, the portion of the liquid culturemedium via a recirculator outlet to the top section; monitoring at leastone environmental condition within the photobioreactor; positioning anarray of light emitters along a surface of the spiral liner; positioninga plurality of flow generators within the containment structure in aspiral configuration between the top section and bottom section; anddirecting, by the plurality of flow generators, a flow of the liquidculture medium from the top section toward the bottom section of thecontainment structure along a downward spiral path.
 16. The method ofclaim 15 comprising arranging a portion of the light emitters along thedownward spiral path.
 17. The method of claim 15, wherein the at leastone environmental condition includes at least one of biomass flow rate,temperature, nutrient concentrations, pH, dissolved gases, and lightintensity.
 18. The method of claim 15, wherein the array of lightemitters includes light emitting diodes.
 19. The method of claim 15,wherein the recirculator includes a medium return system forming achannel within the containment structure including an inlet in thebottom section and outlet in the top section, the medium return systemincluding a pump arranged to continuously receive a portion of theliquid culture medium via the inlet from the bottom section and outputthe portion of the liquid culture medium via the outlet.
 20. Aphotobioreactor comprising: a containment structure arranged to containa liquid culture medium for cultivating seaweed, the containmentstructure including at least one sidewall extending vertically between atop and bottom section, the bottom section including an effluent portalarranged to allow extraction of cultivated seaweed; a spiral linerpositioned adjacent to an inside surface of the at least one sidewalland being in contact with the liquid culture medium; a recirculatorincluding an inlet in the bottom section and outlet in the top section,the recirculator including a pump arranged to continuously receive aportion of the liquid culture medium via the inlet from the bottomsection and output the portion of the liquid culture medium via theoutlet; an array of sensors arranged to monitor at least oneenvironmental condition within the photobioreactor; an array of lightemitters arranged along a surface of the spiral liner; and a pluralityof flow generators, positioned within the containment structure in aspiral configuration between the top section and bottom section,arranged to direct a flow of the liquid culture medium from the topsection toward the bottom section of the containment structure along adownward spiral path; and a controller arranged to receive sensor datafrom at least one sensor of the array of sensors and, in response to thesensor data, adjust the at least one environmental condition by at leastone of adjusting a flow rate of one or more of the plurality of flowgenerators and adjusting a light intensity of one or more light emittersof the array of light emitters.